On German Photography and Thin Boards of Wood

Somehow, it seems as if attaching ever simpler labels to things has become today’s modus operandi. It certainly makes life easy for journalists: German photography = deadpan (here’s a most recent example - my old Latin teacher usually called something like that the drilling of a hole in a particularly thin board of wood: something that doesn’t require much of an effort). I’m planning to explore this whole complex - German photography and its aspects - in much more detail over the next few months. But just to give people an idea of what I’m after let me take the prevalent stereotype of German photography and transpose it into the American context: Imagine someone said that American photography basically was little more than snapshot photos of tricycles in a suburban setting. Somehow, that doesn’t feel very satisfactory, does it?